Recently in the European Space Agency Category

The European Space Agency (ESA) can look back at a fulfilling year. It has been a year marked by new Earth Observation missions to analyse and protect our planet, in particular the completion of the first wave of Copernicus Sentinel satellites and the launch of Aeolus.

With 2018 approaching rapidly and 2017 coming to a close, the European Space Agency (ESA) can look back on a fruitful year.

The European Space Agency held a media briefing at ESA's technical centre in the Netherlands on July 6 to discuss the upcoming mission BepiColombo to Mercury.

Nos Aries, IXV's recovery ship, is now in the Pacific Ocean getting ready for this week's crucial ESA IXV mission. The ship and the team of mission engineers onboard will support IXV's short flight to test new European reentry technologies.

This 8-minute film gives an overview of the past, present, and future of Moon exploration, from the Lunar cataclysm to European Space Agency's vision of what Lunar exploration could be.

Northern Somalia's Cal Madow mountain range is pictured in this image from Japan's ALOS satellite.

From ESA Euronews: In this edition of Space we look back at the past 50 years of space in Europe; five decades of discovery, drama and innovation that have had a profound impact on how we see ourselves and our planet.

On April 3rd, Sentinel-1 will be launched from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana on a Soyuz launcher. The radar mission is the first of the Copernicus programme, providing an all-weather, day-and-night supply of imagery for Copernicus user services.

These pictures give the first detailed views of the next batch of Galileo satellites, the first of which has already been delivered to ESA for rigorous testing in simulated space conditions. The first Galileo Full Operational Capability (FOC) satellite was delivered to ESA's ESTEC technical centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands on 15 May.

ESA's CAVES training programme began its second phase last Friday as six astronauts ventured into the Sardinian caves in Italy that are their home this week. CAVES mimics elements of spaceflight to prepare astronauts and trainers for the real thing.

Earth from Space is presented by Kelsea Brennan-Wessels from the ESA Web-TV virtual studios. In this special edition, Rune Floberghagen, Swarm Mission Manager, joins the show to discuss the upcoming magnetic field mission.

Multi-national flight controllers successfully connected a backup power channel Saturday to the European Space Agency's "Edoardo Amaldi" Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) cargo ship, enabling electricity to flow from the International Space Station to the ATV to set the stage for a reboost of the station Saturday afternoon while avoiding an early undocking of the resupply craft.

A routine inspection has concluded that additional measures are required to ensure the maximum readiness of the third Automated Transfer Vehicle for launch. It has therefore been decided to postpone the launch previously scheduled for 9 March.

In the spirit of the international nature of the International Space Station, ESA's Astronaut Training Division not only welcomes European astronauts: four Russian cosmonauts are also working hard at the European Astronaut Centre this month.

ESA today signed a contract to build a further eight Galileo satellites, alongside other agreements to modify Europe's Ariane 5 launcher to carry four navigation satellites at a time.

After a record breaking year for ESA in 2009, 2010 will be another great year with several launches in different domains. In February the third Earth Explorer, Cryosat, will be launched from Baikonur and will contribute to our better understanding of climate changes. It will also be a very active year for Human Space Flight with early February the European built elements Node 3 and Cupola that will be added to the International Space Station. Then two ESA astronauts will go to the ISS: Roberto Vittori onboard the Shuttle in July and Paolo Nespoli in November for the third ESA long duration mission. Another key moment for Space will be at Europe's Space Port in French Guyane where the legendary Soyuz rocket will be launched for the first time. Many other missions, events or achievements will mark this new year for Europe in Space.